Saturday, January 2, 2016

New Developments and Working with IEET

Thanks to a link by Danko Nikolic, a few weeks ago IEET (the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) reached out to me to repost some of my entries. I'm really excited to work with them and hopefully produce some original content for them as well. My first entry is now live: "The Droids We're Looking For."

Since Posthuman Being will probably be getting a few more hits than usual, I wanted to take the opportunity to quickly summarize the overall purpose of my blog, as opposed to original pieces I may write for other sites or chapters/articles in other publications.

I've always viewed Posthuman Being as an informal -- but still somewhat academic -- "sandbox" for my ideas in relation to the classes I teach at Western State Colorado University and the more formal academic writing in which I am engaged. I am currently working on a few projects which have their roots in several of the posts which have appeared here.

As you can see, there are usually some large gaps in time between posts. This is due to my teaching schedule as well as the other projects in which I'm involved. However, as things evolve, I hope to post shorter, more regular entries.

In the broadest sense, I explore the relationship between what we consider to be human and what we consider to be technological. Of course, this has always been a sliding scale, where the line between "human" and "technological other" is in a constant state of flux. This field of inquiry has a broad application, from points of interface and the topological spaces we occupy, to the diverse ways in which we cultural construct the technological other.

My main philosophical and cultural studies influences are Heidegger, N. Katherine Hayles, and Bernard Stiegler; but I was brought to those specific thinkers through the work of Derrida, Cixous, and the fiction of Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo. I also have experience in film studies and American & British literature. I have taught courses across the fields of philosophy, literature, communication, and film studies.

I am currently the Director of Philosophy and an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Communication Arts at Western State Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado.